Engender blog
All of Engender’s latest news. Reports, reviews, books, articles, and information from across Scotland’s women’s sector.
We would love to hear from other feminists around Scotland. Check out our guidelines for more information on how you can blog for us.
Why the proposed Scottish Carer's Assistance must do more to value unpaid care
This week marks Carers Week, and it comes after two years which have shown, more clearly than ever, the vital role that unpaid carers play. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted what half of the population already knew – that women take on the vast majority of unpaid care work, and that without them our society and economy could not function.
The Scottish Government has been consulting on their proposals to replace Carer's Allowance with a Scottish Carer's Assistance, as part of the devolution of some social security payments to Scotland. The provision of unpaid care, and its interactions with social care, are closely interlinked with systemic and harmful gender roles that constrain women’s lives, with women’s access to paid work, leisure time and power remaining heavily constrained by the provision of care and gendered expectations around its value and delivery.
Engender joins other orgnisations dismayed at exclusion of equality and rights in Scottish Government’s Covid-19 inquiry
Today, we joined with 26 organisations working for equality and human rights in Scotland to write to John Swinney expressing our “dismay” and “deep concerns” following the publication of the Scottish Government’s Terms of Reference for a public inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.
Despite clear evidence raised by equalities groups and by Government itself that that the pandemic has had a greater impact on certain groups of people, the Terms of Reference as published make no reference to equality or human rights impacts stemming from the pandemic. Throughout the document, there is no mention of women, Black and minority ethnic communities, disabled people, LGBT+ People, older people, young people persons subject to No Recourse to Public Funds, and other groups who experienced the brunt of the pandemic.
Eilidh Dickson Engender's Policy and Parliamentary Manager, said:
“Since March 2020 women have been experiencing poorer physical and mental health, increased levels of unpaid work, loss of paid work, greater reliance on state support, insecure housing, and increased levels of gender-based violence. Women who are further marginalised because they are part of other oppressed groups, such as women of colour, LB+ and trans women, single mothers, disabled women and primary and secondary carers, have been exposed to even more acute poverty, violence, and exclusion.
For the Scottish Government to have ignored all of this in their Terms of Reference for the Covid-19 inquiry is disappointing, and presents real concerns about the success of the inquiry if it is falling at this first hurdle”
Where are the women in Scottish Government plans for a National Care Service?
Care is one of the key areas of women’s inequality in Scotland, with women representing the majority of service users, the vast majority of the social care workforce, and the majority of unpaid carers. Care continues to be undervalued and underpaid, precisely because of its long association with ‘women’s work’ and outdated gender norms.
Yet the Scottish Government’s Consultation on a proposed National Care Service for Scotland seems to completely ignore this fact, failing completely to consider gender in their proposals. Equality is not embedded in their plans, and the consultation document does not take into account women’s lives and experiences. The Government has not even published an equality impact assessment as part of the consultation, which would have highlighted the disproportionate impact that failures in social care have on women. In order to be effective, impact assessments should be done as early as possible to actually inform the development of policy.
CEDAW: how are the UK and Scottish Governments responding to the recommendations?
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During the 8th periodic review of the UK from the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the UN Bill of Rights for women, several recommendations were made to the UK Government to improve women's equality and rights (find out more about the CEDAW process here).
These recommendations included three specific areas that the UK is meant to feedback their progress on – incorporation of CEDAW, the impacts of Brexit, and an oversight mechanism for women’s participation in CEDAW at UK level. The UK Government has submitted its progress report on these areas, but it didn’t consult with any of the organisations who have been involved with the CEDAW process at UK level (Engender, the Women's Resource Centre, the Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform, and Women’s Equality Network Wales), and it’s fair to say they were wearing their rose-tinted glasses while writing their report.
Free period products, when and where we need them
In this blog, Engender's Communications and Engagement Manager, Alys Mumford, talks about our continuing work to ensure access to free period products.
A common trope seen in film and TV is a woman being caught short in a nightclub toilet and being met with dozens of new friends proffering tampons and pads. And while I do have experience on both sides of this scene, I also have memories of sneaking a pad up the sleeve of my school jumper when going to the loo, wearing a hoodie tied round my waist on a freezing day in case I was leaking, using a code word to talk about tampons on holiday (‘cereal bars’ in case you’re wondering, and no I can’t remember why), and stressing out when a borrowed tampon had an applicator which I’d never used before.
Lack of access to appropriate period products can also lead to girls missing school, women having to take days off from paid work, people using unhygienic alternatives such as newspaper, and withdrawing from leisure activities.
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Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement Changes
From 15 May 2019, new changes will be introduced which will require couples where one partner has reached state pension age and one has not (‘mixed age couples’) to claim universal credit (UC) instead of Pension Credit.
Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism
Engender welcomes this Scottish Parliament Debate on Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism and the opportunity to raise awareness of the ways in which women in Scotland’s inequality contributes to gender-based violence.
Gender Matters in Social Security: Individual Payments of Universal Credit
A paper calling on the Scottish Government to automatically split payments of Universal Credit between couples, once this power is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Gender Matters Manifesto: Twenty for 2016
This manifesto sets out measures that, with political will, can be taken over the next parliamentary term in pursuit of these goals.
Scottish NGO Briefing for UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Joint briefing paper for the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.
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